Robert Plant Said 1 Bob Dylan Song Changed Everything for Him

The music that Bob Dylan and Robert Plant have put out in their lifetimes differs greatly. Still, Plant has listed two different Dylan songs as key influences for him. He may not have followed in Dylan’s footsteps as a writer, but he said that the message of one of Dylan’s songs opened his eyes to the world around him. Here’s the song that had such a profound impact on the Led Zeppelin singer.

The American musician once insulted Led Zeppelin to their manager

Both Plant and Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page have praised Dylan over the years. Dylan, on the other hand, was once outright rude about the band.

“Hello, Bob. I’m Peter Grant, I manage Led Zeppelin,” Led Zeppelin’s manager told the musician in the 1970s, per Vulture.

Led Zeppelin was at the height of their fame at this point, but Dylan did not seem impressed. In fact, he seemed to think that having to manage the band was a bad thing.

“I don’t come to you with my problems,” he said.

Robert Plant named his favorite Bob Dylan song

Despite this rudeness, Plant still held reverence for Dylan. 

“This next track was a particular and magnificent inspiration to me when I was 15 years old,” Plant said during a spot as a guest DJ. “I think my world turned around and upside down when I heard this track from The Freewheelin Bob Dylan. It’s ‘Down The Highway.'”

Plant also took inspiration from one of Dylan’s all-time best protest songs, “Masters of War.” He explained that it helped him discover his social conscience. 

“Something happened when Dylan arrived. I had to grapple with what he was talking about,” Plant told The Guardian. “His music referenced Woody Guthrie, Richard and Mimi Farina, Reverend Gary Davis, Dave Van Ronk and all these great American artists I knew nothing about. He was absorbing the details of America and bringing it out without any reservation at all, and ignited a social conscience that is spectacular.”

It ignited a new way of thinking in him that left him forever changed.

“In these Anglo-Saxon lands we could only gawp, because we didn’t know about the conditions he was singing about,” Plant explained. “Dylan was the first one to say: hello, reality. I knew that I had to get rid of the winkle-pickers and get the sandals on quick.”

That particular Bob Dylan song doesn’t have a clear influence on Robert Plant 

There is not a clear through line from “Masters of War” to Led Zeppelin’s music. While Plant said there is some vague social commentary in “Stairway to Heaven,” Led Zeppelin does not have outwardly political songs like Dylan does. Still, there are some similarities between the two artists. 

Both Plant and Dylan have written epic, sweeping songs. They both have richly visual lyrics that tell the audience a clear story. In addition, Dylan has long been considered a myth maker, and Plant deals heavily in mythology in his songs. 

While you may not find a song like “Masters of War” in Led Zeppelin’s discography, or one like “Immigrant Song” in Dylan’s, they are not as different in their songwriting capabilities as they may seem.